It can be confusing with the onslaught of coaches in the market these days, each specializing in a specific part of your life, as to which one you should hire when you feel like your life needs some tweaking or a major overhaul. It depends on what area of your life needs the most work. If you feel like you need help with changing behaviors associated with health and wellness, then a health coach is a perfect fit for you. Looking to make a major career shift, feel uncertain of your future path, or need some help finding your passion, then a life coach is a good choice for you. Further explanation of these two types of coaches and what they offer is detailed below.
Health Coach
Health coaches are trained on a variety of nutritional theories and are equipped to provide easy ways you can incorporate nutritious foods into your diet to improve energy, sleep, and mental clarity. Additionally and most importantly, health coaches focus on all factors that affect a person’s health, such as physical, emotional, spiritual, and social influences. For instance, everyday stresses may lead to overeating or choosing less healthy foods, lack of sleep may result in less energy and a low desire to be physically active. Because people’s lives vary, a health coach develops an individualized program by addressing lifestyle habits of their clients while holding you accountable to meet your goals.
Studies show that many chronic disease or pain sufferers are unaware that their own behaviors are preventing them from getting better. Physicians often don’t have the time to work with their patients on nutrition and lifestyle factors that have brought them to the doctor’s office in the first place. In conjunction with your physician, health coaches can help you identify ways to modify your behavior to improve your health.
Life Coach
Life coaches are not experts in the areas of health and fitness but rather they specialize in a person’s personal or professional life such as career, relationships, and personal growth. People who hire life coaches might need to improve confidence, feel stuck, be in a huge transition, or be looking for more purpose. Through specific strategies, the coach helps you define yourself, envision the life you want, and provide guidance on how to move forward.
Health and life coaches can overlap in some areas when helping their clients (e.g., helping with stress), but the starting point of their clients is very different.
As an Integrative Nutrition health coach I tackle some of the issues a life coach does with my client to avoid overly compartmentalizing things in their lives. Often times, helping clients become healthy through better eating and exercising in ways they enjoy provides them the energy and mental clarity that cascades into other parts of their lives, finances, job performance, etc. which can reduce stress and create more confidence and presence in one’s life.
